Final answer:
Maya Ying Lin, as an architecture student, independently submitted her own design to the competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Her innovative V-shaped granite wall has the names of the lost or killed soldiers and has influenced other memorial designs.
Step-by-step explanation:
According to Always to Remember, it was Maya Ying Lin herself who submitted a design for the nationwide competition to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. She was a university student studying architecture when she proposed the very distinctive V-shaped wall made of granite, etched with the names of American soldiers who were killed or went missing during the Vietnam War.
Lin's design was groundbreaking at the time and deviated from traditional memorial forms, going on to be an influential template for future memorials and public artworks, such as the Civil Rights Memorial in Alabama, which she also designed.